The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI)



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SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a new branch of exploratory science that seeks for evidence of life in the universe by looking for some signature of its technology. Or put another way- trying to provide an answer to the age-old question "Are we alone?"

WHY BOTHER?

Our current understanding of life’s origin on Earth leads us to believe that given a suitable environment and sufficient time, life will develop on other planets. Whether evolution will give rise to intelligent, technological civilizations is open to speculation. However, such a civilization could be detected and should offer our best opportunity for discovering extraterrestrial life in the near future.

HOW IS IT DONE

There are two ways we can search

1) Listening-

Project Phoenix. It is an effort to detect extraterrestrial civilizations by listening for radio signals that are either being deliberately (or accidentally) beamed our way, from another planet. Phoenix began observations in February, 1995 using the Parkes 210 foot radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. Phoenix doesn't scan the whole sky. Instead, it searches Stars that are known to have planets as well as other nearby “sun-like” stars. Such stars are the most likely to have planets capable of supporting life.. There are about one thousand stars targeted for observation by Project Phoenix. All are within 200 light-years distance.

2) Looking-

Using powerful Telescopes (like the Hubble telescope) Astronomers are searching for extraterrestrial intelligence by

a) searching for other planets outside our solar system. This is very difficult as planets do not emit light we have to rely on them giving themselves away by reflecting light from their star towards us

b) looking for powerful light pulses beamed our way from other star systems. Unlike other optical SETI searches, this new experiment is largely immune to false alarms.

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